I have been diving through the library volumes with the contemporary records of the early days of atomic chronometers. One of the things that stands out is in this image https://www.ucolick.org/~sla/temporary/tai1960.jpg
Temps Atomique Intégré was first published in Bulletin Horaire, Series G, Number 8 (1960 Mar/Apr) Note that while this issue contained the tables of Heure Définitive for 1960, it refers to a CCDS meeting that happened 1961 April 11/12. At this epoch the slower issues of BH with the final values of time were being published more than 12 months after the dates they tabulated. Even the faster issues of BH with the semi-final values of time were being published about 10 months after the dates they tabulated. Worse, the issues which contained the predicted corrections for transforming raw UT0 meridian observations into the values of UT2 required for broadcast time signals were being published after the dates those corrections were needed. There can be little doubt that these large delays of the perennially under-funded BIH prompted URSI and IAU to recommend the use of coordinated frequency offsets and time steps rather than the old way where every observatory used its own observations to produce the reference clock for its own radio broadcasts. But I digress from this first publication of TAI. I have not seen any historical synopsis that mentions this first use of a time scale with the initials TAI. Has anyone seen a reference to this use? If not, that begs the question of why not? -- Steve Allen <s...@ucolick.org> WGS-84 (GPS) UCO/Lick Observatory--ISB 260 Natural Sciences II, Room 165 Lat +36.99855 1156 High Street Voice: +1 831 459 3046 Lng -122.06015 Santa Cruz, CA 95064 http://www.ucolick.org/~sla/ Hgt +250 m _______________________________________________ LEAPSECS mailing list LEAPSECS@leapsecond.com https://pairlist6.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/leapsecs
